IANS | 03 Apr, 2024
US President Joe Biden has said that he is "outraged and heartbroken"
by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen
(WCK), including one American, in Gaza on Monday.
"They were
providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were
brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy," Biden said in a
statement on Tuesday.
The seven WCK workers, who died in an
Israeli strike on Monday, were from Australia, Poland, the UK, a dual
citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine. They were travelling in a
deconflicted zone in two armoured cars and a soft-skinned vehicle, WCK
said in a statement.
The WCK convoy was hit as it was leaving the
Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons
of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route, it
added.
"Israel has pledged to conduct a thorough investigation
into why the aid workers' vehicles were hit by airstrikes. That
investigation must be swift, it must bring accountability, and its
findings must be made public," the US President said.
"Even more
tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been
one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have
been killed. This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in
Gaza has been so difficult – because Israel has not done enough to
protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to
civilians," he added.
Bident further said that the US will
continue to do all "we can to deliver humanitarian assistance to
Palestinian civilians in Gaza, through all available means".
"I
will continue to press Israel to do more to facilitate that aid. And we
are pushing hard for an immediate ceasefire as part of a hostage deal. I
have a team in Cairo working on this right now," he said.